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SOTU 2013: Bringing Home The Troops

According the The New York Times, President Obama will use the State of the Union address to announce a plan to bring home 34,000 U.S. Troops from Afghanistan within the next year. This amounts to half of the remaining troops currently serving there. The move will give the White House room to continue their promised efforts of bringing the troops home, while also giving the military commanders some flexibility in the withdrawal plan.

By not giving a hard date, the bulk of the fighting force will potentially still be there during the heavy fighting season. It is expected that some of the withdrawals could happen as early as this spring, but still leaving around 60,000 troops to remain during the summer and through the fighting season. This announcement will not answer questions on what happens after 2014 when security control will shift completely to the Afghans.